"Ah, when will days like this ever end..."
Escher was merely an ordinary farmer on the Wizard Continent. Every harvest season, he had to pay hefty rents and taxes to the lordly nobility. Generally speaking, a farmer's income consisted of crop harvests, hunting gains, and odd jobs. But now, not only had crop yields plummeted severely, the prey in the mountains had nearly all been claimed by extraordinarily powerful beasts due to ecological changes. Odd jobs were even less of a long-term solution.
The reason farmers here struggled to survive was precisely the war caused by Earth Roar Wizard Academy!
The war between Earth Roar Wizard Academy and a mechanical academy of Sky City had already lasted several years. Although wars between wizards did not directly endanger ordinary humans' lives, in the Wizard World, the foundation of ordinary human survival rested upon wizard academies.
Without large numbers of wizard apprentices venturing out to gather specimens and materials, terrifying monsters would breed in great numbers, making it difficult for ordinary hunters to survive. Even the overflow of energy from battles between wizards could ecologically contaminate certain lands. Though such contamination lasted only a very short time for wizards and had virtually no impact on the Wizard World as a whole, to ordinary humans, it meant an entire year's harvest!
Though it was a war between wizard academies, those who ultimately suffered were the most ordinary commoners who kept the world running.
"Our food won't last through this winter. Everyone in the village has already left. I heard the textile mills in Shadowan City are hiring in huge numbers now. The lord is going to reclaim the land and plant cotton and raise sheep everywhere. Escher, why don't we..."
"No! This is land our ancestors have cultivated for generations. If you want